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? <br />The Blue River Whitewater Course <br />Background <br />I have a long history with paddling in and around the Blue River. I paddled there often <br />growing up and have raced and organized early whitewater events since the mid-seventies. <br />These events, the success of other boating parks, and the popularity of paddling on the Blue <br />River led the Town of Silverthorne to look into avenues for improvements to this stretch of the <br />river. <br />Three Structures are planned for this stretch of the Blue River. In this design, rock <br />structures will direct the flow to pass through openings that will control, concentrate, and direct <br />the flow between specific points at sufficient velocity and depth to produce whitewater features. <br />The finished result will be an attractive whitewater park that will be integrated with the riverfront <br />businesses and will serve as a significant attraction to visitors to Silverthorne. <br />The design for the park will take into account many users with a variety of needs. The <br />Town of Silverthorne is looking for a way to create a tourist attraction and to integrate this <br />attraction with riverfront business. The tourists who visit are a mix between in-stream users and <br />people who visit the park to paddle and those who come to watch and to play in and around the <br />• water. In addition, the design needed to accommodate a wide variety of in-stream users that <br />spanned the gamut from very inexperienced to expert level. The design will have features for all <br />of these users. <br />In my opinion, the Blue River Whitewater Course will be a success and become a <br />significant contributor to the local economy. At lowest flows, the Course will be'mainly used <br />by tubers, canoers, floaters and novice kayakers and rafters to practice their skills on moving <br />water. At higher flows, it would be used for events, as well as for play boating, slalom, <br />downriver, inflatable boating and other such general recreation uses. The park will be designed <br />to accommodate all of these users but sees higher use, and therefore more benefit to the <br />community, at the higher end of the flows claimed. <br />Project Design <br />Design of Structures <br />The structures and their elevation/configuration will designed to provide depth for <br />boating during minimum boatable flows, even when the whitewater wave features are not <br />present. The design of the in-stream structures is pertinent to this discussion and explains how <br />the same structure can provide navigable hydraulic features at lower levels and dynamic <br />whitewater features at higher levels while controlling and diverting the flow. <br />• <br />-4-